JR - Blues' Davidson weighs his job options

For years, Blues President John Davidson told fans to "Come grow with us." Now, with new ownership in place, the question going around the organization is whether Davidson will continue to grow with the Blues.

Tom Stillman, whose group took control of the club May 10, is the middle of determining the structure of the Blues' front office, and despite the fact that Davidson just finished the first year of a four-year contract, there are no assurances he will remain with the team.

In fact, Davidson has a "window" in his deal, which triggered when the ownership change took place and opened for an unspecified limited time, allowing him to seek employment outside of the organization.

Davidson stressed that his preference is to stay put — "We thoroughly enjoy St. Louis; it's been great to us," he said — but with the uncertainty of Stillman's plans and the window closing at a time that Davidson chose not to disclose, he may soon be checking his options.

If Hull is there for mainly a title, I'm fine. I just don't want him to have any real power. lol

Agreed, I love Hull and it would be great to have him around but I dont know that I want him running the show, I think JD has done a great job and hope he sticks around but if he leaves it wont be the end of the world. As long as Army stays we will be just fine.

JD has done a great job as President, but my feeling is he'll leave. With all the animosity between Checketts and Stillman and JD being brought here by Checketts, I could definitely see there being an issue. I think Stillman would be stupid to let JD go, but my gut-feel tells me he doesn't want him at the helm any longer, and it's very possible that JD doesn't want to work for Stillman either. Purely speculation on my part, I hope I'm wrong.

JD has done a great job as President, but my feeling is he'll leave. With all the animosity between Checketts and Stillman and JD being brought here by Checketts, I could definitely see there being an issue. I think Stillman would be stupid to let JD go, but my gut-feel tells me he doesn't want him at the helm any longer, and it's very possible that JD doesn't want to work for Stillman either. Purely speculation on my part, I hope I'm wrong.

JD might be forced out because the Blues finances are in shambles and must be corrected. I believe the characterization that JD and Stillman are cool with each other.

This is all about money and nothing else. It is not about JD leaving, but being forced out due to the crappy financial situation that the Blues are in.

Again, if he can restructure, then he might not get cut. However, I do not expect that to happen.

Hey, if losing JD allows the finances to bring in a difference-maker, or to keep everyone the Blues want to keep....then I can live with it.

JD has done a good job, and I hope he can stay on. But the on-ice product is what I care about the most. I'm not a big fan of Brett Hull as a manager, but I think he could be pretty useful in a fund-raising capacity. Doug Armstrong is driving this ship, so just give the guy solid scouting, adequate resources, and let him do his job. Hitchcock was not a popular choice, but can anyone complain about that hire now?

Stillman has earned the right to make these hard choices. No serious hockey guy is going to be ignorant of JD's contributions. But the rebuild is pretty much over and its time to get the books straight.

I don't like this idea, someone has been keeping this team on plan, someone created the plan, someone hired everyone and got everyone on the same page moving in the same direction. It hasn't happened yet, and it might not, but I think this is short sited. I understand it should help the bottomline, but winning the Cup is the key to this franchise taking the last step and if that happens and they compete for a 4 to 5 year period...which can't happen without smart hockey management and he has proven to be pretty good with less than most. Why would anyone believe the hockey operations would be better without JD.

I don't like this idea, someone has been keeping this team on plan, someone created the plan, someone hired everyone and got everyone on the same page moving in the same direction. It hasn't happened yet, and it might not, but I think this is short sited. I understand it should help the bottomline, but winning the Cup is the key to this franchise taking the last step and if that happens and they compete for a 4 to 5 year period...which can't happen without smart hockey management and he has proven to be pretty good with less than most. Why would anyone believe the hockey operations would be better without JD.

Not sure from where this is coming. Not a single member here has posted anything close to this. Just take a deep breath and realize that the St. Louis Blues are financially ****ed up. JD did his job. Thank you JD.

What I find interesting is that we now find out that in his most recent contract is an out clause giving JD a window of time to explore his opportunities if there was an ownership change.

In that regard JD does, indeed, have the opportunity to "leave". If the proverbial writing is on the wall, then he just might exercise his contractual rights.

Either way it will be an active force out or a passive de facto force out.

I would like to thank JD for his commitment to building the team through the draft and righting the ship after Laurie left it for dead. He has made a huge impact on this team, especially the first four years, until Army took over as the face of the franchise, and everyone should be grateful for his service. We should also commend his will to stick to the plan, not panic and make knee jerk reactionary moves and develop this team the right way.

With that being said, Stillmans group has every right to let JD go. He has a large salary, he made 2 mil per year on his initial contract and I'm sure that figure went up with his new deal. That's nothing to sneeze at. That's a 3rd line center or top 6 dman(bottom pairing). Stillman has to cut every conceivable cost to get this club on solid financial ground. Or we will have a new owner in five years, again. Some people are going to lose their jobs, it sucks, but that's just the way it is. Just like the roster you need to bring in younger cheaper talent to run the operations. With Stillman running the business side(he's a very successful businessman along with the majority of his group) and with the Armstrong duo running the hockey operations, this team is in good hands. Now they need to find a way to get strong corporate support, raise the ticket prices to middle of the pack, figure out a way to get the city the restructure the financing of the Scottrade(which is why they have to pay a premium entertainment tax, that was how the buildings bonds were guaranteed), purchase the adjacent parking garage from the city, find a way to restructure Checketts money grab with the concession group(Sport Service I believe) and get FSM to buck up with their next TV contract. He will need to be willing to absorb a few years of being in the red, and hopefully inject some capital into the roster because this team is lacking high end talent and if these playoffs have shown us anything, you have to have legit first line talent to go deep in the palyoffs. The Blues dont have a single player, outside of Petro, who can hold a candle to Kopitar, Richards, Kovalchuk, Parise, etc... If he can manage to pull off those monumental tasks, this team may actually be profitable and maybe just maybe, we will finally have an owner who can afford to control this team for more than five years.

Thanks JD, but this is business. The Blues organization would like to thank for your dedication and wish you and your family well in your next indeavour.

Not sure from where this is coming. Not a single member here has posted anything close to this. Just take a deep breath and realize that the St. Louis Blues are financially ****ed up. JD did his job. Thank you JD.

What I find interesting is that we now find out that in his most recent contract is an out clause giving JD a window of time to explore his opportunities if there was an ownership change.

In that regard JD does, indeed, have the opportunity to "leave". If the proverbial writing is on the wall, then he just might exercise his contractual rights.

Either way it will be an active force out or a passive de facto force out.

By the way, I love the avatar!

Haha...Wasn't talking to anyone in-particular, but if I could, I would say it to the new owner. I don't believe the job is finished, so they shouldn't mess with the hockey operations. If Stillman thinks he can make it better by saving that money it's his right. But if he's wrong it's a move that will weakening his team and then with this market he could be killing any chances for a real strong franchise. They have to raise revenue and a great team that makes deep runs in the playoffs is the best way to do that. I believe JD has had finial say like it's been reported and like he says anytime he's interviewed when the subject comes up. So with that being said is it possible he has stop a bad deal or two? Again there's noway of knowing if that ever happened but it's a possibility.

Now, I know this hasn't happen yet, and if he does cut or let JD walk and everything is just fine and they even become better. I'll admit I'm wrong, but at this point I believe this would be a mistake.

Robert Johnson is the best I've ever heard, the first time I heard him I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Till this day I still haven't heard anyone else play three parts at the same time the way he did it, like Keith Richards said the first time he heard him, "Who's the other guy playing with him."

Let's be real here guys. JD was the force behind the rebuild to start, but think about it, how much have we heard or seen of JD in the last two+ years? Not much.

If we lose JD, it's not that BIG of a loss. We promote Army to President, and it wouldn't be the first GM who's also the President.

We bring in Hull in a fundraising stand point, he become the "face" again and Army is STILL the man in charge. Would it suck? Yeah, but it's not a huge loss.

I see JD's role as pretty much what Hull is going to be doing: the face of the organization in a lot of ways, and heavily involved with fund-raising. The team will roll Hull out there to be a likeable figure to represent the front office in a lot of matters.

JD did this heavily when he first came here. He was constantly in commercials, interviews, etc. This past season or so, he consciously stepped back and allowed Armstrong to speak for himself. Also, the team was filling the arena. Things are night and day better than when the team's ownership changed last time.

An owner has the right to restructure the front office the way he chooses. From how things appear now, I think he's leaving the hockey decision-making people in place (Armstrong and the scouting department) and restructuring the business and PR side. If they can do the same thing and save a few million dollars....that's hard to argue against.

The ticket prices will go up more. The team will want to keep building fan interest and keep the arena full. The team on ice will want to build on their success and win something meaningful.

I'm a fan of JD and wish him luck and success wherever he goes. But its not a surprise that his role on the Blues can't go on as it is.

Let's be real here guys. JD was the force behind the rebuild to start, but think about it, how much have we heard or seen of JD in the last two+ years? Not much.

If we lose JD, it's not that BIG of a loss. We promote Army to President, and it wouldn't be the first GM who's also the President.

We bring in Hull in a fundraising stand point, he become the "face" again and Army is STILL the man in charge. Would it suck? Yeah, but it's not a huge loss.

That matters not. No one on this board has any clue of what goes on in the front office, so just because he's not in front of the public as much these days, doesn't mean he works any less. Over the last couple years, I've read/heard many people state that JD doesn't do as much as he used to, but I've yet to see anyone back up that claim with evidence. What we know is that the organization's ability to draft, bring in great front office people, and find free agents has greatly improved since JD has been President(I'm sure Armstrong has a lot to do with the latter), so I'd imagine he deserves a lot of the credit. That's why it would be difficult to see him leave. The hope is that if he does leave, the Blues have enough talent in their front office to continue their upward trend and that Stillman is able to retain guys like Army, etc...